The Power of Habit
This book is full of fun anecdotes and studies, and that’s part of what’s made it a classic.
The most useful piece of actionable wisdom to extract from Duhigg’s book revolves, as it were, around the habit cycle. By recognizing that habits consist of cue, routine, and reward we can begin to track what cues trigger our routines and make adjustments. We can change the cues, by removing them from our environment. We can interrupt the routines that automatically follow the cue and insert new routines. We can also use rewards, even simple rewards that are enough to create a small dopamine spike, to start to create new habits.
Duhigg talks about the value of keystone habits: habits that create a domino effect.
He also discusses willpower, the way in which it operates like a muscle, and how to both build it through practice and not over-use it so that it’s available when we need it.
